Plans to turn Olympic media centre into snowdome won't happen

Margaret Ford, chair of the Olypmic Park Legacy Committee, has all but ruled out Gensler’s plans to turn the Olympic media centre into a giant snowdome.

Speaking at Mipim, Ford said that the plan was “not going to happen. That’s not the plan.”

“The primary objective is to achieve a high tech vision. We will look at it if we have to but that’s not the plan. The real goal is employment generation,” she said.

In February architects Gensler, along with Acer Snowmec and ASL Developments proposed to turn the building, which has yet to find a tenant, into a 28,500m2 indoor snow complex with hotels, lesiure and entertainment facilities.

Andrew Altman, chief executive of the OPLC, said that expressions of interest to take over the Olympic broadcast and media centres were sought last November.

“We want to have key anchors [tenants] in place in 2012 before the Games,” he said.

“It would be great to fill it all immediately, but…it will fill up over time.”

The centres will go out to market in May, and are to be part of London’s Tech City, where companies including Google support smaller start-up firms to thrive on the site.

Altman said that the centres were likely to be split between smaller tenants and larger anchor companies, and that several major media organisations had expressed an interest in taking on some of the site.